From Scandal to Academic Excellence: NDC’s Victoria Hamah Earns PhD

Former Deputy Minister of Communications and National Democratic Congress (NDC) stalwart, Victoria Hamah, has earned a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), marking a significant academic milestone years after her high-profile exit from frontline politics.

In a reflective account shared on social media in February 2026, titled From Storming Seas to Calm Shore: My Doctoral Journey Through Power and Gender, Dr Hamah revisited her public life, describing how her political career over the past decade had often been narrowly framed by controversy rather than substance.

“The narrative of my public life over a decade, unfortunately, has been reduced to scandal, a framing that is analytically convenient rather than empirically faithful,” she said, arguing that such portrayals obscured deeper issues around power, gender and legitimacy in public life.

Dr Hamah, who previously served as a student leader, gender activist and Deputy Minister, said her time in public office was marked by sustained challenges that had little to do with competence and much to do with entrenched gender norms.

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“My public career was met with sustained challenges to legitimacy that bore little relation to competence or mandate, and much to entrenched gendered norms governing authority, visibility and control,” she noted.

She also reflected on the intense public scrutiny she faced, including commentary on her appearance and demeanour, which she said was often weaponised against her confidence and political presence. According to her, the controversy that led to her removal from office revealed deeper flaws within the political system.

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“When my public controversy emerged, the institutional response was swift, moralistic and largely indifferent to context,” Dr Hamah said. “In that moment, the political system revealed a deeper pathology: a preference for spectacle over justice, and a willingness to sacrifice women to preserve institutional comfort rather than confront its own contradictions.”

Rather than retreat from public engagement after leaving office, she said she chose a different path, turning to scholarship as a means of continuing her political work.

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“My departure from office did not signal retreat, but a critical reckoning,” she explained. “I rejected the assumption that removal from executive power constitutes political erasure.”

That decision led her into doctoral studies, culminating in a dissertation titled Gender Asymmetry in Ghana’s Parliamentary Committees: A Critical Analysis of Women’s Representation and Legislative Influence. The research examines how institutional design, political culture and power imbalances shape women’s participation and influence within Ghana’s parliamentary committee system.

Dr Hamah stressed that the work was grounded in rigorous analysis rather than personal grievance. “This work is not autobiographical reflection disguised as scholarship; it is a rigorously grounded political intervention informed by lived experience and sustained empirical analysis,” she said.

Beyond academia, she highlighted her continued advocacy for women’s leadership through the Progressive Organisation for Women’s Advancement (POWA), which she founded to support and protect women operating in what she described as structurally hostile political environments.

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“Through advocacy, mentorship, leadership development and institutional engagement, POWA works to ensure that women are not merely included in public life, but safeguarded within it,” she said.

Looking ahead, Dr Hamah said her focus was not on personal redemption but on broader transformation. She described herself as a scholar-practitioner intent on shaping governance debates, influencing policy and mentoring the next generation of women leaders.

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“I have learned that in politics, falling is not synonymous with failure; often, it signals that one has exposed what the system would rather leave unseen,” she said.

She expressed hope that her journey would encourage young women to challenge long-held assumptions about women’s place in politics and public life, insisting that such limitations persist not because of evidence, but because of unresolved structural barriers.